


When Tomorrow Catches Up

by darkblueau



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Female Frisk, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Kinda?, Post-Pacifist Route, Protective Sans, Sickfic, Worry, more like
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-01 12:03:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5205209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkblueau/pseuds/darkblueau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one could know the toll that Mt. Ebott was taking on Frisk, not even Frisk herself. Frisk rescued the monsters; now they get to return the favor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Frisk had finally reached the culmination of all of her efforts. The barrier was broken, and she stepped outside to see the sun for the first time in ages. The surface was far more beautiful than she remembered, something both Alphys and Asgore commented on. She couldn’t help but giggle when Papyrus “met” the sun.

 

But Frisk wasn’t doing too well. She swayed, grabbing onto Toriel’s arm.

 

“My child, are you hurt?” she asked.

 

Now that the adventure was over, suddenly all the effects of it began to weigh on Frisk. Perhaps it was the fact that in the underworld, her health had been calculated by points? Or it could have been the adrenaline that had been pumping through her. Whatever the reason, she realized now that she felt chills all over her body. She felt exhausted. Instead of answering Toriel, she let herself begin to fall to her knees.

 

Sans caught her, and Toriel picked her up. All of her friends rushed to her side.

 

“HUMAN, WHAT IS WRONG?” Papyrus demanded.

 

“…tired…,” Frisk mustered. Her head was pounding.

 

“…w-was it because of the r-rain?” Alphys asked.

 

“What could a little rain do to someone as strong as my little buddy?!” Undyne said, but she looked worried.

 

“In m-my anime, sometimes t-the rain makes a human catch a c-cold…,” Alphys said uncertainly.

 

Toriel felt Frisk’s forehead; it was warm, like Chara’s had been whenever she got sick. She frowned. “Whatever the reason, Frisk needs to be put to bed. I’m taking her home.”

 

Everyone agreed to that and after a few ‘get well soons’, and as the other monsters made preparations to go to the surface, Frisk stayed in Toriel’s care in the ruins.

 

It took a little less than a week to reach the first human city, where the human king arranged a meeting with Asgore. The human king demanded to know how the monsters had broken the barrier. It had been a few centuries, but the records showed that it would take seven human souls to do so.

 

Asgore tried to fumble an explanation about how all of the monsters pressed against the barrier as one and were able to break that way, but the king’s advisor said that was impossible. Then Asgore said they collected the souls of a few humans who had died, falling through a gap in the earth, but he let it slip that it was because of Frisk they had made it out and that she was fine, but still underground. The king immediately dispatched some of his men to go and bring the human child, on the basis that the child should be immediately returned to their parents. Although the rest of the meeting was spent talking about how to prevent conflict from breaking out and how to integrate their two societies, Asgore felt as though he had failed Toriel and Frisk.

 

In Toriel’s care, Frisk was having a miserable time. Every day she slept more, and she woke coughing, with her chest feeling heavy and her stomach feeling alternatively queasy and hungry. The few time she managed to eat, she threw up. Toriel was very concerned, but even with healing magic, there was little she could do.

 

A knock on the door brought more unwelcome news.

 

The king’s men addressed Toriel and said, “Ma’am, we hear you have a human child under your custody?”

 

“Yes, I do. I was caring for her,” Toriel said. She did not like where this was going.

 

“We’re going to need to take the human child.”

 

“You can’t take her now! She’s very sick!”

 

“If you stop us from taking her, we’ll have to charge you with abduction of a minor and jail you.”

 

Toriel gritted her teeth. She calculated her odds, but decided it was not worth another war, even to protect Frisk.

 

The men entered Frisk’s room and one of them picked her up. “Stevenson, she’s burning up. She needs a doctor. We need to take her, immediately.”

 

“Can’t I at least go with you?” Toriel asked.

 

The men shrugged. “We were ordered to extract the child, not to prevent you from coming.” Frisk moaned and reached for Toriel.

 

“She’ll probably be more comfortable with you holding her anyway,” Stevenson said, placing Frisk in Toriel’s arms. Toriel made a note of who was kind and who seemed wary about her coming. On the way to the hospital, she made some phone calls to Frisk’s friends. Fortunately, they were all at Undyne’s house when she called.

 

“IS THE HUMAN OKAY??” Papyrus asked.

 

“She’s still very sick,” Toriel said. “The humans came for her today. They’re going to take her to some human doctors.”

 

Against the various reactions over the phone, Toriel said, “I’m going with them. I’ll be watching over Frisk every step of the way.”

 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t for Toriel to decide. As soon as they reached the hospital, Frisk was pulled from Toriel’s arms and wheeled away on a stretcher.

 

“Let me go with her!” Toriel demanded. “I need to be in there with her!”

 

“We can’t allow that um, ma’am. You’re not a legally recognized guardian.”

 

“I don’t understand. The child has no parents, so I’ve been caring for her. Surely it’s better for her to have me than no one?”

 

But no matter what Toriel said, she was not allowed past the first waiting area. She slept there that night and the next, waiting for admission.

 

…

 

She was woken up her third day there by a Papyrus, loudly demanding to be allowed in.

 

“morning, Tori,” Sans said, sitting down beside her.

 

“Sir, we cannot admit you!” a nurse was trying to insist.

 

“I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL RUN THROUGH ANY PUZZLE, FACE ANY CHALLENGE YOU HUMANS HAVE, IF YOU WILL JUST GIVE MYSELF AND MY FRIENDS A CHANCE!!”

 

“Listen to him, or else I’ll run you through!” Undyne sneered beside him.

 

“Security!” the terrified nurse cried out.

 

“That’s enough!” said the former queen of the monsters. “Undyne, you will have to remain outside if you cannot appear peaceful. We cannot afford a bad impression. Papyrus, sit down with your brother. Nurse, it has been three days. Surely any family Frisk has would have come to visit her by now?”

 

“Maybe?” said the nurse. “But that doesn’t matter. We can’t allow you to see her if you aren’t a legal relative. That’s hospital policy.”

 

“Could you at least tell us if she is recovering?” Toriel said, desperation leaking into her voice.

 

The nurse looked at the assembled monsters. Though they had frightened her at first and their appearance was very strange, she could see how anxious they all were for the small child. She sighed.

 

“I shouldn’t say but…when you brought her, she had some infected scratches, she was malnourished and there were the beginning symptoms of pneumonia. When we medicated her, she went into anaphylactic shock, and so we had to stop the medication. We’re doing all that we can, but…there is reason to believe she may not make it.”

 

No one present took the news well. Toriel covered her face in her hands, having flashbacks to Chara, and Alphys turned to Undyne for comfort. Mettaton threw himself on the ground and yelled ‘Oh, my darling!’ and Papyrus turned to Sans…who wasn’t there.


	2. Chapter 2

It didn’t really matter that he wasn’t familiar with this place, he was gonna find her. Sans jumped from ‘short cut’ to ‘short cut’ almost recklessly. He wasn’t sure there was one that would plop him near Frisk, but out of all of them he had the best chance.

 

Make a reasonable estimate to how many tries Sans put in, and if you triple that, you might be around the real number. If Paps knew how much effort he put in, he might even lay off calling Sans lazy. In the end, he managed to find the room, just managing to stop himself before he took another short cut. You’d think it was luck that brought him to Frisk’s room, but that was sheer persistence. No, luck was the reason why no one else was in the room when he got there.

 

Frisk was hooked up to a lot of tubes and wires, and despite his background in science, Sans did not have a clue as to what any of them did. What he did see was that Frisk was in a terrible state, with bandages covering much of her skin. Her breathing was shallow, and although she was asleep, she was restless. Was this the little girl who had bounded through the underground, befriending even her fiercest enemies? If Sans had realized that it was putting her through this much, physically, he would’ve stepped in more.

 

Frisk whimpered weakly.

 

“kid, I’m here for ya,” Sans said, taking her hand. For once, Sans found himself to be more scared of a world without resets than of a world with them.

 

Sans rubbed her hand and started to make some calculations in his head. The route he had taken had ended up being a long cut (ha ha), but if he cut out this and that and a few other dozen paths, he thought he might be able to turn it into a valid short cut. He couldn’t risk bringing Paps here yet with his lack of volume control, unfortunately, but he thought he might be able to manage Tori. He reluctantly let go of the kids hand (she tried to hold on when he let go, how sweet was that?), smoothed out the route by testing it himself (he was **not** going to be responsible for any space time accidents – not ever) and then brought Tori to Frisk’s room.

 

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing, playing around with space time…Frisk! My child!” Frisk was still visibly uncomfortable. Toriel immediately sat next to Frisk’s side, and took her hand. She whispered soothing nothings, and Frisk actually seemed to settle down.

 

“Mommy…,” she said, and that young voice reminded Sans of a different time, when Paps was still a baby bones and Sans was not responsible for the bedtime story, let alone working multiple jobs to pay the bills.

 

Seeing Toriel kneeling by Frisk’s side, and the way the kid seemed to relax… it could not have been more worth it. They both needed this.

 

…

 

Unfortunately, they didn’t have much time. Sans heard a doctor pull open the door, and had himself and Tori inside the private bathroom in less than a second.

 

“…here we have your child, Mr.Vergessen and Mrs.Vergessen.”

 

Were they Frisk’s parents? Frisk had never indicated whether or not her parents were alive, but the lack of mention had led most of her friends to conclude that something was amiss.

 

“What’s wrong with Fritza?” Mr. Vergessen demanded. Was that Frisk’s name?

 

“She has pneumonia, primarily. There’s a number of other minor issues, but right now we are very concerned about her ability to breath.”

 

Toriel gave an inaudible gasp, and Sans squeezed her hand.

 

“When can I expect to take her home?” Mr.Vergessen asked. He was out of sight.

 

Mrs.Vergessen was standing by the bathroom door, with bleached hair and mammaries that looked unnaturally large. Sans could see her staring at her cell phone, and he could also tell see she wasn’t doing anything important. It looked like a shopping website.

 

“When she has recovered. I assure you, we are doing everything we can,” the doctor said.

 

“You’ve checked on the brat, can we go now?” Mrs.Vergessen asked. Sans gritted his teeth.

 

“Don’t talk about my daughter that way, Verona. Dr.Merritt, I expect a call when Fritza is well enough to take home.” With that, the Vergessens left.

 

Dr.Merritt sighed and made some mechanical adjustments.

 

“I don’t envy you, kid…,” he muttered.

 

When he left the room, Toriel and Sans were finally free to come out into the room again.

 

“i think i can see why she didn’t mention her parents before. yeesh,” Sans said.

 

Toriel wasn’t paying attention though. As soon as the coast was clear, she had made her way back to Frisk’s bedside.

 

“My child, we all love you so dearly. Come back to us.”

 

…

 

Later, the entire group reconvened, including Asgore. He was leading them somewhere other than the hospital, somewhere he insisted was important. He started to speak, but Undyne interrupted.

 

“No offence big guy, but I really want an update on the kid first.”

 

“Someone saw Frisk?” Asgore asked in surprise.

 

“Yes,” Toriel said, with a prominent chill to her voice. She was not happy about being made to leave the hospital. “I’ve very thankful to Sans who found a secret route and used it to take me to Frisk.”

 

“HOW WAS SHE?” Papyrus asked.

 

“Not well,” she said sadly. “They had a lot of machines connected up to her. The doctor said she was having trouble breathing…”

 

“Something very important to human health,” Undyne whispered to Papyrus, who gave an exaggerated nod.

 

“She looked like she was in a lot of pain. I just wanted to scoop her out and take her with me, but that would’ve caused a many problems, I just… really feel like I should be in there.”

 

Sans patted her hand, and said, “the kid’s parents also showed up. didn’t like the looks of them. the dad was kinda overbearing, and the mom had absolutely no interest. I didn’t want them anywhere near Frisk.”

 

“Golly, that’s really bad news,” said Asgore. “I have been spending all of my time in meetings with human leaders, including King Berthold of this land. He was the one who sent for Frisk, and when I explained the situation, he said Frisk would be sent back into the custody of her parents unless she was an orphan or her parents relinquished custody. In all other things he was fair, and I could not insist he allow us to keep her. He said very kindly that if her parents did not show, we could be her guardians. I was hoping that would be the case.”

 

Toriel actually sneered at him. “Do you understand her welfare is at stake? Those people allowed Frisk to wander off in the first place! We can’t trust them with her!”

 

“I’ve done what I can do, Tori…,” Asgore said, but was interrupted by Toriel.

 

“Save it. Sans, would you take me back to my child?”

 

“of course.”

 

The group soon arrived at Asgore’s destination after Sans and Toriel left. Asgore explained that this human city had some ‘slums’ in bad repair, which were the buildings they were standing in front of them. Many of them had squatters (“I WILL BEFRIEND THEM!!” Papyrus declared as Undyne patted him heartily on the back), and King Berthold considered them to be a nuisance. The monsters were free to take them if they could put them in repair, which would be any easy task with magic, especially when compared with the construction of livable environments underground. Asgore had even bartered for free water and electricity for the year. All of them could start moving into the slums any time they wished.


	3. Chapter 3

The buildings were quickly fitted out for monster habitation, which in many cases took less work than it would have for a human resident. Not all of the monsters came to live in the slums; some, like Onion and the Gryftrot, found their niche out in the wilderness instead. It wasn’t perfect, and individual monsters sometimes found themselves in danger of general hostility and even assault, but with less than a month’s time put in the transition went far smoother than anyone anticipated.

 

Toriel spent almost no time picking out her own place. After getting Sans and Papyrus to help her move her stuff up from the Ruins, she spent every minute in the waiting room at the hospital, or visiting Frisk in secret. Unfortunately, Sans was inundated with requests to see the child, so he became pretty hard to get a hold of.

 

So when Sans turned up at her apartment with a nervous grin, well, suffice it to say Toriel was a little concerned.

 

“got a moment?” Sans asked.

 

“Of course. You looked chilled to the bone,” Toriel replied, looking to add a little levity.

 

Uncharacteristically, Sans didn’t seem to notice. “how do i say this?”

 

A long pause passed, before he finally said, “ …the kid’s gone.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“you okay?”

 

Toriel sighed. “I knew this was coming, if I’m honest. Seeing her parents that first time, they were bound to discharge her at some point. Despite that…”

 

“you’re still worried.”

 

Toriel nodded. “I might be reading too much into it, but for Frisk to have wandered that far from home meant something had to be wrong and I did not like what I saw of her parents in the hospital. It might be selfish, but I want to track her down and make sure she is where she’s meant to be.”

 

“i’m not surprised. you love her a skele-ton…” Both smiled at that. “…we all do. i don’t often say this, being such a lazybones, but i’m willing to do whatever i can to help, Tori. if it’s what the kid wants, we’ll bring her home.”

 

“That means more than I can say,” Toriel said, scooping the skeleton up into a hug.

 

“heh. no problem.”

 

…

 

Since being discharged, Frisk was dealing with her own problems. Her chest hurt a lot, and she went between feeling chilly or uncomfortable warm. Every action took a lot of effort; the distance between her bed and the bathroom (which she had constant need of) felt like walking from the Ruins to New Home. Her father checked in on her occasionally to make sure she had choked down the medication, but otherwise was too busy to deal with his prodigal daughter. Her stepmother was told by her father to make sure she was eating and getting fluids, but Frisk hadn’t seen her stepmom since they brought her home – not that Frisk minded. Verona was half the reason she had left in the first place.

 

When she was asleep or half-asleep, she saw disturbing visions filled with dust and blood, and she would wake up crying (never screaming. She had learned the cost of screaming in her father’s house a long time ago, and it wasn’t worth it). Other times the heaviness in her chest materialized as a blue spear or a crushing blow or even as a suffocating flame. In her waking hours, Frisk missed all of her friends more than she could say, especially Toriel. But did they even want her?

 

They had let her father take her home. Her father didn’t even want her, surely he wouldn’t have brought her home if the monsters wanted her? Maybe she gave them the same nightmares they gave her?

 

One day, one of those nightmares came to life, stepping out from the shadow in her closet.

 

“buddy, you look like you’re having a bad time,” he said, with that grin that seemed to have a permanent residence on his face.

 

A corridor flashed in her mind, where bone broke bone and breath left her lungs in an endless battle. _Is it his fault I feel like this?_ _What did I do to him? Why does he **hate** me?_

 

“chill out. i’m not trying to make your blood run cold here. you’re not, uh, happy to see me?”

 

 _Sans_. It was just Sans. Comic Sans the Skeleton. The Sans she knew would never hurt her. Frisk attempted a weak smile.

 

“there we go. not gonna lie, i was worried about why you might look so scared. i don’t wanna rattle your bones.” Frisk chuckled weakly, but it turned into a cough. “i’d ask how you’re doing, but seems like the answers kinda obvious.”

 

Sans turned to leave, but Frisk grabbed his sleeve, and gave a little tug. Part of her was terrified he wanted as little to do with her as her father did, but the other part _needed_ someone – her first friend that she had seen in so many days was not getting away that easily.

 

“i was gonna go let the others know how you’re doing…” Another tug, followed by a small hand pointing at a shelf filled with picture books.

 

“didn’t you tell me you were too old for that when you were sleeping on our couch?”

 

Frisk gave a pitiful look, complete with puppy dog eyes and a weak cough.

 

“you really know how to make a skeleton weak at the knees, don’t you? okay, fine, but just one and then i gotta get back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mean to take a week to post this. Oops. I'll try to post tomorrow to make up for it.


	4. Chapter 4

“HEAR YE, HEAR YE! THE COMMITTEE FOR SAVING FRISK, HERO OF ALL MONSTERS, SECOND ONLY TO I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN FINALLY BEGIN, NOW THAT A CERTAIN LAZYBONES HAS FINALLY JOINED US.” Papyrus sent aimed a glare at Sans, who was a full two hours late.

“I run a tight schedule, hon. You need to call if you’re going to do this to us.” Mettaton said.

“Yeah, what gives?” Undyne demanded. 

“heh, sorry. i got a little held up with the kid…”

“YOU FOUND HER? WHEN?”

“today, a couple hours ago.”

“How was she?” Toriel asked.

“not too good, i think. she looked a lot like she did in the hospital, minus the machines.”

“Well, what took so long?” Undyne asked.

“she wanted a bedtime story, and some other things. the kid seemed lonely. i don’t think her parents are paying her much attention.”

“My poor child…,” Toriel said softely.

“WE NEED TO GET HER OUT FROM THERE!” Papyrus declared.

“B-but how?” Alphys asked. “I have been reading their laws, n-none of them facilitate the removal of a human child from their family, barring extreme circumstances.”

Sans eye glinted.

“The human leader made it clear he won’t take it kindly if we forcefully take Frisk back,” Asgore added.

“So, what will we do for my precious darling?” Mettaton asked.

A pause. “Al, could you tell us what those extreme circumstances were?” Sans asked.

“Um, yeah. Pedophilia, child abuse, neglect, the u-usual…the scopes are a bit different, but most of it mirrors our own laws.”

“thanks. that’s all i needed to know,” Sans said, and then he walked off.

“BROTHER, WHERE ARE YOU GOING? WE ARE NOT DONE HERE!!”

“Aw, let him go, Pap. You know he prefers to do his own thing,” Undyne said. It would have surprised Frisk to see her so reasonable.

“I STILL DON’T LIKE IT! IT’S IRRESPONSIBLE OF SANS. WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING TOGETHER ON THIS.”

“H-he’ll come back, I’m sure,” Alphys offered.

Papyrus grunted. He doubted it.

Mettaton leapt up then. “I just had a brilliant idea! I will become an overnight sensation!” He threw out his arms in an arc in front of him. “I will make the human audiences adore me! Then, using my influence, I will tell the story of Frisk, moving all my fans to demand they return her to us! It’s fool-proof!”

“Uh-huh,” Undyne said sarcastically.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Mettaton demanded.

Before a fight could break out, Toriel said, “Calm down. I’m sure we all have ideas to share, so how about this? We’ll have a group brainstorming session, and then decide our course of action afterwards.”

That seemed to work. King Asgore pulled out a giant notepad, and helpfully wrote Mettaton’s idea on it. 

Unfortunately, by the end Mettaton’s idea was the best they had. Papyru’s ideas were amusing, involving such things as a GIANT BOWL OF FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI and a PUZZLE COMPETITION WITH THE WINNER GAINING FRISK, but ultimately impractical. Every single one of Undyne’s ideas would have triggered a massive war and were immediately struck down by Asgore and Toriel. Alphys suggested very few ideas, which basically came from her anime; while they were creative for a story, they were a bit too convoluted in real life. Besides that, she spent the time hearing Mettaton demand she vote for his idea and Undyne screaming she was brilliant and needed to unleash that brilliance upon the rest of them. By the end, she looked like the overencouraged snail.

As for Asgore and Toriel, Asgore spent most of the time weighing the consequences of each new idea and trying to decide if it might trigger a major conflict, and Toriel acted as a moderator, calming the group when they got too rambunctious. They contributed very little.

At the end, they decided that Mettaton’s idea had a lot going for it. It couldn’t harm their relations with the humans (if anything, a monster star should ramp up their reputation), and a good Tv personality could be very successful at enacting change. Until someone came up with something better, they all decided to help Mettaton become a star.

…

When Frisk woke, along with the suffocating pressure on her chest and the usual aches and chills, she noted another sensation: her stomach was eating itself. Frisk hadn’t eaten anything since the hospital.

Slowly, she dragged herself out from underneath the cover. She nearly fell, and had to steady herself against the bed. She felt a familiar sneer in the back of her head, and knew that Chara was disgusted by her weakness. She didn’t care. If she was determined enough to make it through the underworld, she could make it to the kitchen.

Along the way, she had to cling to the wall for support. It was far more arduous than a trip down a hall had any right to be, but Frisk wasn’t going to let that discourage her.

No, what discouraged her was the state of the fridge when she got there. Most of the contents were not ideal for a child: beers for Verona and leftovers from who knows when. She shouldn’t have expected it would be any different. She hadn’t had a decent home-cooked meal in this house since her mother had died.

She heard footsteps and frowned when she realized who it was.

“Hey brat, you’re up? And of course you’re out to stuff your face. That’s so like you.”

Frisk ignored her and checked the cabinet. Maybe she could find some Campbell’s?

“Look at me when I’m talking to you,” Verona demanded.

Frisk leveled a chilly glare at her.

“Ugh, why did I have to get the stepkid with such an ugly mug?” Verona scowled. “Look, all I’m saying is that you finally lost some weight being sick. You might actually look normal-ish if you kept it off.”

They didn’t have any soup or anything really, and Frisk felt too tired to care. She started walking back to her room, feeling rather disgusted with the whole situation, but then she heard her father's voice coming from his office. That was rare. He usually wasn't home at this time. If she spoke with him about it, maybe he would let her go stay with Toriel, who would take care of her? Or at least get her some soup.

"Come in," he said. "What is it?"

The room was spinning. Frisk tried to say, "Can I go back to the monsters?" but it didn't come out quite right.

"Scared of monsters? Don't worry, you never have to see them again. Now why don't you go back to your room?" That wasn't it at all! But Frisk was finding it hard to speak past the ache in her throat, and her father was already busy looking at his papers again.

She tried one more time, croaking out, "Father, m'hungry...Verona was..."

"Don't tell me you two had another fight," her father said. "I don't have time for this right now Fritza. Whatever is going on, it needs to wait."

In the end, Frisk found herself back in her room, hungry and friendless. She remembered when she had first run away. She had stormed off after a fight with Verona. At the time, her father seemed to think she would be back soon enough. He hadn't stopped her. Had experience taught her nothing? 

Going to her father was useless.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Ambiguous human laws and country is ambiguous. Normally I love drawing up that kinda thing, but it’s really not that important here.


End file.
